Lindiwe Zulu condemns Parliament violence

The chief facilitator to Zimbabwean inter-party talks and South African President Jacob Zuma’s international relations adviser, Lindiwe Zulu, has condemned the Zanu PF sponsored violence in and outside Parliament on Saturday.

Foul mouthed and visibly drunk mobs Zanu PF supporters stormed the Parliament building in central Harare and disrupted a public hearing on the Human Rights Commission Bill. The group assaulted the MDC-T’s Hwange Central legislator, Brian Tshuma and also beat up several Harare based journalists.

Speaking to London based SW Radio Africa on Monday Zulu said “any violence coming from any quarter at any time is really not acceptable and the parties have committed themselves through the Global Political Agreement that they will deal with such issues.” She said she hoped the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) ‘will be up and about dealing with this.”

Zulu added, “it’s very unfortunate, that’s exactly what Livingstone (SADC Troika Summit) was about. The leaders at Livingstone took a firm decision to call on all three political parties to deal with the issue of violence. But they also called on them to create an environment that is conducive for political activity for everybody.

“When there are incidents of violence like that it’s very unfortunate and we feel strongly they all need to take responsibility and make sure that does not happen.”

Commenting on the violence on Saturday, the Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo said “This is yet another unhelpful entry on the long ledger of the political culture on intolerance, violence, and the sanctioning of criminal hordes to do the dirty work of those who cherish violence and violence that continue to keep Zimbabwe high up on the international relations scene for all the wrong reasons.” Nehanda Radio.com